Neal on La Manga trip

Neal Ardley senses that there is a real purpose among his squad to achieve something – and this week’s training camp to La Manga is an important part of building towards that aim.

Wimbledon’s team flew out to Spain today for a week of training that will end with a game against Granada CF at La Manga on Saturday.

Speaking during an interview for Dons Player ahead of the trip, Neal Ardley said: “We have a good bunch of lads and one thing I will say for the boys is that they want to achieve something. They really do and the better the players we bring in the more chance we have of succeeding. Last season we had a good 11 or 12 that were strong and the rest were a bit more fringe, but this season we have a good 18. I think they are all looking around at the squad we have. This is what we want with good competition for places.”

Neal believes that the trip to La Manga will bring the squad closer together and build team morale ahead of 2015/16.

“It will involve more work on the training field, but also more time together for the squad so that they get to know each other even better,” Neal added. “It builds a rapport and there will be more time together in the hotel. We will do match analysis and we will do some stuff that we would not normally get to do with the players in the evenings. At the end of it all, everybody will be fit and we will go into the last two games of pre-season with players ready to play 90 minutes.

“The match will be tough because they will pass it well and we may have to adapt to a Spanish referee. The physical side of it may not be allowed too much and we will have to deal with that. For us, it is about building partnerships and solving problems. We want to make sure that players are more aware of decision making skills and their roles moving forward.”

Dons Player also features an interview with James Shea after his return to side against Millwall.

The photograph above was taken by Stuart Butcher on behalf of Pro Sports Images.